A statistical study of precursor activity in earthquake-induced landslides

In this paper, a statistical study of precursor activity in earthquake-induced landslides by means of spring block models is presented. The dynamic behavior of the rock/soil slope can be studied by using the statistics of the different distribution of slip events at the interface between the soil and the bedrock. It is shown that by introducing earthquake-induced cracks of certain length within the interface, a robust 2D spring-block model can be formulated for studying triggered landslides. A cellular automaton is built in order to examine the dynamic behavior and the stability of rock/soil slopes during and after a neighboring earthquake. The type and nature of the failure plane, as well as the triggering intensity, is studied. The different dynamic evolution modes of the slope can be mapped to different statistical evolution characteristics of specific shape parameters of the corresponding incremental displacements' distributions. Within the proposed context, spring-block models can be used in order to understand, predict and minimize the impact of catastrophic landslides triggered by earthquakes.